Let me begin by thanking FAO Director-General H.E. Mr Jacques Diouf and the Italian Government for the invitation to participate in this important international gathering in Rome. We fully support efforts made by FAO's Director-General in aiming to create solid food security in the new Millennium. Sharing the goals set by the World Food Summit in 1996, the Republic of Belarus attaches great importance to the present meeting.

We intend to contribute actively to the development of international cooperation for strengthening the multilateral mechanisms of fighting hunger. In our opinion, it is necessary to carry out the policy of sustainable development, primarily at the national level, in order to eliminate one of the key causes of food instability, unbalanced social-economic development in general, and in the field of agriculture in particular.

Ensuring and maintaining food security is a strategic goal of the development of the agrarian complex in my country. In 1998, the Government of Belarus worked out and approved the Conception and the National Food Security Programme. These documents contain the estimation criteria of food security and a series of strategic and prompt measures aimed at achieving this strategic goal.

At present the role and function of the Government in the agrarian sector is undergoing change. The Government is no longer a monopolist but a market agent, which stocks up with farming products on an equal basis with its competitors. The Government focuses mainly on efficient agricultural policy and strategy, thus making way for a flexible market infrastructure in the country.

The success of the fight against hunger also depends on the sustainable management of natural resources and eco-systems. It is common knowledge that in the course of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster nearly 70 percent of radiation fell on the territory of Belarus, contaminating about a quarter of the territory inhabited by more than two million people.

Unfortunately, global science has no counter measures yet that could allow interruption of the biological chain of radionuclides' migration in nature. Therefore, we have to perform a complex set of special protective measures annually in order to lower the excess of isotopes int crop and cattle production. In this connection, our delegation would like to express hope for the extension of mutual cooperation and assistance from international organizations to the affected countries.

This important Summit offers a great opportunity to mobilize political will, technical expertise and financial resources so that the target of reducing hunger can be achieved. Belarus endorses the proposal to establish an International Alliance against Hunger and Poverty that would bring together Governments of poor and rich countries, the international community and civil society in achieving this goal.

We commend FAO for setting up a Trust Fund for Food Security and Food Safety, and for the support it provides to the developing and transition countries in all aspects of agriculture and rural development. We join the requests for FAO to support the training of national experts, particularly for the World Trade Organization and other multilateral negotiations in agricultural trade, in improving the negotiating capacity and thereby to reduce their disadvantage in relation to the developed countries.

It is our conviction that global markets for agricultural commodities should be fair. We stand for fair competition in world agricultural trade. Unfortunately, access of developing and transition countries to developed country markets is constrained by customs tariffs. We hope that the new round of trade negotiations removes the existing barriers. The growing liberalization of the world's markets cannot occur on the basis of double standards. It is also essential to adopt policies conducive to the strengthening of regional cooperation to increase intra-regional agricultural trade.

We must secure a central place for women, who play a crucial role in agriculture in developing countries. That is why we request that FAO support the development of programmes focused on women and young rural people.

Hunger breeds desperation and paves the way to crime, force or terror, endangering national and global stability. It is, therefore, in everyone's interests - rich and poor alike - to fight hunger. Our success, however, will ultimately depend not so much on the commitments made at the Summit, but on concrete steps after the Summit. The task is not an easy one. It requires a comprehensive and coherent approach and mobilized political will. It requires that all those who are committed to eradicating hunger work together.

We are certain that the world community will be able to obtain, through collective efforts, food security for the entire population of the planet.